Coronavirus is real and the sooner we start self-isolating, the sooner this nightmare will be over

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Dan Wootton, Executive Editor

23 Mar 2020, 17:04

Dan Wootton, Executive Editor

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COME on! We can do this – we’ve got to do this.

The time has come to stop the nonsense talk of social distancing and make it abundantly clear what we have to do immediately as a nation: Stay at home or suffer the consequences!

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The time has come to stop the nonsense talk of social distancing and make it abundantly clear what we have to do immediately as a nation: Stay at home or suffer the consequences!Credit: NB PRESS LTD

Compared to other countries, we’ve been given quite a head start to get ready for this moment, to prepare ourselves psychologically and practically.

But this is the time for the UK to show that, eight decades on, we still have the blitz spirit in our blood.

Many of our parents or grandparents were sent to the Europe frontline to be bombed by Hitler.

All most of us have to do is put our lives temporarily on hold while scoffing Domino’s pizza and watching Netflix.

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Many of our parents or grandparents were sent to the Europe frontline to be bombed by Hitler. All most of us have to do is put our lives temporarily on hold while scoffing Domino’s pizza and watching Netflix.Credit: NB PRESS LTD

I don’t for a second underestimate the significance of such a call, by the way.

These are dark days and there is a growing coronavirus-shaped cloud over our daily lives right now, causing extreme stress and anxiety.

It’s so easy to feel angry and uncertain and tearful and depressed. Like you, I’ve been through the gauntlet of emotions while practising social distancing.

However, that is simply not an excuse to try and carry on with your normal lives.

Listen to government advice and follow it.

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For the moment that means we are allowed to go for a run or walk. But you must do so alone, without your partner or your five mates.

That sounds like a reasonable compromise to me.

However, our lack of collective action is goading the Prime Minister into taking more draconian steps to abolish normal life.

This is real, by the way. Covid-19 isn’t some foreign virus that will somehow evade your day to day life.

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"It was like three hands. One that’s strangling you. One pushing your face down as it does. The other one ripping your heart out of your chest and it just doesn’t stop... for days'.

"Please stop going out. Passing this around will mean it just takes longer till we’re back to normal. Please stay safe people.

"Two weeks away from anyone else outside your family should see this gone. It’s that simple. Please stay in."

It’s not just older people impacted, either.

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As the Labour MP Doctor Rosena Allin-Khan tweeted after doing a shift at her local hospital: “Previously fit and healthy young people in their 30s and 40s attached to machines, fighting for their lives. This is no joke.”

THIS IS VERY REAL.

Scientific modelling shows we are just two weeks behind Italy’s current catastrophe. We are coasting towards at least 70,000 deaths right now.

It won’t be forever. In fact, the sooner we start self-isolating, the sooner this nightmare will be over.

At such a trying time, it is imperative we celebrate the brilliant work being done so many to keep society running.

So thank you to the doctors, the nurses, the NHS workers, the first responders, the supermarket staff, the cleaners, the journalists, the bus drivers, the tube staff, the delivery drivers and anyone else who NEEDS to keep working to keep our society going.

They’ll thank the rest of us for doing our part too and staying indoors.